Pity the Beanbags

The old saying that “politics ain’t beanbag” has long since lost its original significance. But last night/this morning’s shit-show shenanigans in the US House of Representatives proves once again that “beanbags” have suffered too much humiliation in that age-old comparison. 

Beanbag

If you ask me we’d might be somewhat better off if we ripped down the decorum curtains that Congress critters like to hide their bribery, backstbbing and debauchery behind. I mean, let’s get real. Many of the folks who elected these “representatives” probably loved the near brawl on the house floor last night. 

The veneer we seem to crave hides the venal far more than we want to admit. 

Get Your Gordian Knot Cutters Out. The Insurrection Continues. 

Tomorrow is the two year anniversary of the January 6th Insurrection and we all know what that was. Well, scratch that. We still seem to disagree on what that was. My point of view is clear. It was a violent attempt to dismantle the US government by force after all the previous shenanigans failed. As would the ones that would follow it. Until now.

In my view, the current chaos in the US House of Representatives over choosing its Speaker is just an Insurrection continuation. Regardless of which shill is elected to the office it appears to me that until at least the next election one half of a branch of government will effectively rule itself ineffective and to a large degree moot. And that’s the point.

If what we’re reading about the concessions already granted and under consideration to advance the election of a Speaker are close to real then the Insurrectionists will have succeeded using parliamentary procedure in ways they couldn’t by breaking windows and brutalizing cops. That’s certainly easier and less messy and looks more legitimate. But hey, whadda ya know, the folks holding Kevin McCarthy and everyone else hostage are the same bunch that wanted to torch the place. Once an Insurrectionist, always an Insurrectionist.

Don’t get me wrong. Congress, and in this case more specifically the House, is certainly in need of some change. Yeah, that’s an understatement. But this bunch of hostage takers has tied things into such a Gordian Knot that not even Alexander the Great could cut it. Bluntly, I say again, that’s the point. Create enough chaos, gum up the works enough and you don’t have to do anything but raise your voice in outrage to raise dollars. 

Frightening AND fitting that we’re here on the eve of Jan 6. 

Catawompusly Chawed Up

Crazy day in American politics yesterday as the goofballs in the GOP House Caucus tried to elect a new Speaker of the House. Waffling weasel Kevin McCarthy failed not once but three times to secure enough votes achieving a bit of ignominy in making the kind of history your mother wouldn’t want you to make.

My favorite thing I ran across while tooting around Mastodon (if you know, you know) during the vote counting was this bit of history from Joanne Freeman.

I don’t know about you but I think our current journalism could be mightily improved if writers started using more phrases like “catawompusly chawed up” to describe the goings on our politicians like to engage in. I’m not advocating violence. We’ve had enough of that. But these idiots are certainly doing violent harm to the little that’s left of our political process.

Tech Predictions for 2023

I thought I’d jot down a few tech predictions for 2023. So here we go.

There will be tech news in 2023. There will be grand promises and grander failures. It will be entertaining, a bit crazy, and ultimately meh as the latest in a round of bad bets come due or come closer to being so.

Apple will make a ton of money in 2023 even though some governments want to design products for them. Apple won’t have as easy a time of it as it has in recent years for a number of reasons including some self-inflicted wounds.

Artificial Intelligence will continue to be a dominant story until chat bots start writing most of the tech stories.

The Metaverse will further try to wriggle out of the pond with or without legs. With other companies jumping into the “let’s put an expensive, goofy-looking, headache inducing gizmo on your head” it will be one of the comic tech highlights of the next few years before this whole thing ends where it was always destined to: an enterprise play.

Cyrpto will continue to falter as the denizens of the latest refuge of scammers discover that they’ve sucked all the money they can from the available suckers. There certainly won’t be any Super Bowl commercials.

Streaming Entertainment will continue to figure out that they haven’t figured it out yet. Consolidation will begin in earnest, hopefully before the streamers cancel all of the shows.

Twitter. Who the hell knows. It’s owner sure doesn’t.

Mastodon and federated social networking will continue growing pains as it continues to grow and becomes less of a pain for new users to gain entry.

Humans. Humans will be the biggest tech story behind the stories that capture the headlines. The humans who create tech will continue to be in some form of tension with the humans who use it. Humans who do use tech will continue to look less and less for tech to solve their problems, understanding before tech creators that all tech solutions aren’t necessarily going to change the world.  At least until the tech creators understand that they need humans to talk to humans to help them solve the problems with the products they create. Or until the robots show up.

Rest in Peace Frank Galati

Frank Galati was a gentle sweet soul and one helluva theatre artist. I first came across him after my first move to Chicago in 1979 in the Wisdom Bridge production of Travesties. His performance was a revelation. As was his work on the whole.

One of his many gifts are the legions he influenced, insuring his gifts, like the memories he created, will live on. We were all blessed to experience him.

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Director-Writer-and-Actor-Frank-Galati-Dies-at-79-20230103

Things We Know But Don’t Admit

There are things we know. There are things we don’t know. And there are those damn known unknowns. 

There are also things we know but don’t want to admit we know. Some of those things keep us in quiet denial. Some of those things allow us to loudly vent outrage at forces beyond our control. (We love forces beyond our control.) Regardless, those things are things. Admit it or not.

One thing we can be grateful to the rotting orange turd blossom for is that he cracked open some of the myths we’ve all been hiding behind like an egg-sucking dog in a hen house. Although lately the current that wants to drag us swiftly back into the safe harbor of myth seems to be rapidly increasing. But I think it’s probably taking us under. Again. 

Broken beyond broken is the “no one is above the law” saw. You can also call it the “we’re a nation of laws” myth. Yeah, we have them. Yeah, for most of us they mean something. But hey, get real. There’s a Department of Justice memo that basically says that whomever we elect as president is above the law. If you aren’t paying attention, that pretty much de-myths the myths. At least until someone decides the principle of the unitary executuive that spawned that memo gets tossed into the shredder. (Hint: That’s not going to happen. Hint 2: We apparently love to be governed by memos.)

So indictments may come for the rotting orange turd blossom and his blossomettes. Headlines will scream. Lower thirds will find new shades of red to burn our retinas. But folks I’m sorry. We’ve been playing a game with rules we thought we knew until recently. And the house always wins.

Admitting we know that would open up a can of worms nobody wants to fish with.